A message from the Vision Coordinator
My own Vineyard have I not kept
“The Debt Calabar must Pay”
Beloved in Christ,
I excitedly but humbly welcome you to this Apostolic Commission, the Hope of Glory Missionary Foundation now domiciled exclusively in Calabar at the South Eastern Fringes of Nigeria in Africa. It is pertinent to state here that our place of domicile Henshaw Town in Calabar South Local Government Area is along the Coastline of Calabar where the pioneering Scottish Missionary first touched Harbour on the 10th April 1846, specifically at Duke Town still in Calabar South Local Government Area, immediately adjacent to Henshaw Town.
Trade, Missionary and Colonial life seem to have so uniquely given us advantage over our neighbours both near and far which unfortunately has translated into the complacency and apathy we now seem to be identified with both Spiritually and secularly. We have indeed become only a shadow of God’s pre-destined purpose for us as a people.
Let me fill you in a little:
A. We remain the 1st People group in these parts (West Africa) where Missions was conceived, planned, organized and executed to the later in spite of supposedly insurmountable challenges.
B. The 1st where heathenic, idolatrous kings (not one but two) with their cabinets agreed and wrote to request for Christian Missionaries as early as 1842.
C. 1st where early missionaries to the West Africa came had over 100 years of unbroken service (never once retracted even at the peril of their lives) to make us truly a Christian People and they succeeded. Even till date Calabar and all her people are identified with Christian Faith even if nominally.
D. Our language, Efik became the 1st in West Africa to be “known” and “spoken” in Heaven through Bible Translation: NT – 1862, NT & OT – 1868 Translation led by Rev. Hugh Goldie assisted by Rev. Robb
E. Our Language was so articulately developed by the Early Missionaries such that it abided an instrument in the Hands of God for the Unification of several Ethnos into a mini-affinity Bloc historically described as the Old Calabar Province and Spiritually as the Calabar Missions Field of the Scottish Mission (ref. Scottish Ten Pound Note). Efik remained the Ordinary Language, for proclaiming the Gospel, of Communication and Education for a very long time in these areas.
F. We remain till date the 1st and only ethno in West Africa who were accepted into the Committee of Christian Nations and our Obong crowned as the Defender of the Christian Faith. This happened on the 6th day of Sept. 1878 during the reign of King Archibong the 3rd of Duke Town.
Our King; the Obong of Calabar rightfully should be to West Africa what the Sultan of Sokoto is to Islam (Muslims) in Nigeria.
G. Calabar remains a case study for Missiologist where, during the first era of contemporary Protestant Missions; kick started by William Carey in 1992, Kingdom Missions was advocated and fully practiced. It underscores the truth of the relative absence of syncretic Churches in the Original Calabar Churches. The Holy Spirit through the Missionaries was poised to exhaust Himself into making the Calabar peoples, His People.
Calabar till date remains incontestably the 1st Born of God in West Africa. Remember 1st Born spiritually had never been a function of chronology of Biology but rather a prophetic/Divine positioning with incontestable covenant evidences to authenticate same. The few above speak for themselves.
The abiding concern of the Throne of Grace, as revealed to me however is; will these Redemptive Graces extended to our Calabar speak for us or against us, on that Great Day in His Presence? How have we used His Grace to fulfill our Redemptive Obligations as 1st Born? Why have we not entered into the Divinely appointed and Redemptive Inheritance as 1st Born?
The challenge of this Vision speaks to every Believer in Christ who hails from this Missiological Contraption herein recognised as the Old Calabar Province or Calabar Missions Field parts of and spanning four states in present day Nigeria viz Cross River, Akwa Ibom, parts of Ebonyi and Abia State. In the last two States we are talking about Arochukwu, Afikpo, Uwana, Abakiliki, Uburu, Ohafia and Abriba Peoples.
The Holy Spirit is saying to us “Hear O’Calabar Church; out of Missions were you brought forth and now unto Missions you must return”
“The Lives of Missionaries were sown to birth the Calabar Church so God expects the lives of Missionaries from the Calabar Church to be sown for the birthing of Churches; in Asia, Middle East, Europe, etc etc”
Do you not know O’Calabar Church that “the Sons of the Highest are brought forth by the Spirit of the Highest and are programmed by the Spirit of the Highest to live after the Glory of the Highest”…APSB
Missions in the 21st Century is The Debt Calabar Must Pay [DECAMP]
The entire Vision revolves around the Acronym DECAMP [DE – Debt, CA – Calabar, M – Must, P – Pay]
The Missions Baton (i.e the Lamp-stand of other people groups) has idled in our hands for over a century now. We are One Hundred and Seventy Seven Years old as a Christian People. What do we have to show for it? The Scottish Church can confidently point to the Calabar Church as a “Fruit of their Labour”. Where can we honestly point at ours?
Herein is the crisis faced by the Calabar Church. God’s abundant blessing on us overwhelmed us unto the “sleep of death?” God forbid. God has not given up on us. The time is now to wake out of sleep for God’s set time to favour us has come. We have for a long time kept the Vineyard of others and left ours unattended to. Don’t be discouraged my brethren for we know that our God makes all things beautiful in HIS Time.
Always remember to tell yourself, your family and all our Brethren within your sphere of influence and indeed whosoever will hear that we are God’s Chosen People, His Gateway into the West African subcontinent with an Altar that till date still speaks eloquently of His Unfailing Love for us as a people.
We have no other God besides HIM (YAHWEH) and we can never enter into the fullness of His Ordained Blessing for us as First Born, until we fully return and wholeheartedly submit to HIM.
Stay Blessed as we solicit your Prayers and Partnership, as God Almighty by HIS Spirit leads us into leading other peoples into complete obedience for HIS Glory and our Spirirtual and Physical benefits through Jesus’ most Wonderful Name.
Jesus Christ is Lord
Scriptural References:
- Isa. 1:18-20
- Isa. 5: 1-7
- Songs of Solomon 1:6
- Romans 1:14–17
- Romans 8:12-14
- John 15:16
The Lord’s Servant
Apostle Paul Simon Bassey (APSB)
(Vision Coordinator)
+234 803 345 5112